The Sea's Secret
by gahlifre
Summary: A castle haunts Melody's dreams as she walks through the forest. Harry is trying to come to terms that Sirius Black betrayed his parents. Though they are very different, the two teens find that they have more in common than anyone could have guessed. INDEFINITELY DISCONTINUED.
1. Pristine Chaos

It was a cold, snowy, and gray November night near the Scottish town of Aberdeen, and Melody Albert was tired of waiting. As yet another snowflake fell on her face, she huddled up even tighter in the blanket draped around her, ready to go back to the hotel where she would be safe and warm. The girl thought of the warm fire, the soft sheets, and the cold water waiting for her kilometres away and sighed.

Suddenly, Melody heard a shout come from the building behind her. Curiosity got the best of her, and she slowly stood up from her comfortable position near the carriage to peek inside the pub through a low-lying window.

People stood chatting loudly at tables by a fire inside. Over in the right-hand corner of the room, a few such tables had been cleared away for dancing. A traditional tune played while people sung along, everybody rushing about the place, seeming so happy and carefree and-

Melody looked at the scene with longing, scolding herself for being so idiotic. If only she hadn't mentioned to the landlord that she was only twelve, he wouldn't have kicked her out and she could be enjoying herself inside- with only water of course. The girl's eyes drifted to a young couple dancing near the fire. A man, with black hair and wearing a white shirt with blue cotton pants was swaying with a beautiful woman with flowing red hair in a blue dress. Her parents. They looked wonderful, gazing into each other's eyes with such emotion that even a twelve-year-old girl like Melody herself could see that they were in love. And in that moment, despite her annoyance that her parents were taking such a long time to enjoy themselves, Melody smiled with happiness.

Noticing the landlord, a scrawny man with straggly brown hair, turning in her direction, Melody slipped back down into her old spot beneath the window. The scene she had recently witnessed kept her mind occupied for a good few minutes, but soon even her parent's perfect romance became disinteresting. Watching the white snow fall on the road in front of her, the girl began absentmindedly tracing her finger through the fluff. In a matter of time, she was drawing pictures of flowers, sunshine, and the blue waves that she loved so dearly back home in Melari. Anything really, that took her brain off the cold and depressing scene in front of her.

However, she quickly ran out of things to draw. Frustrated, the girl searched in the depths of her mind to find something. Suddenly she found herself yet again tracing her fingers through the snow. A triangle, with a circle inside of it. And, through the strange symbol she had just drawn, a long, thin line. Staring in confusion at what she had just drawn, Melody racked her brain for where she had seen such a picture, when the peculiar events of a week ago suddenly swarmed her thoughts.

They had been at yet another tiny church in some little Scottish town that her parents had been so found of visiting on their vacation. After trying to act like she was as fascinated as mum and dad were with the numerous stained-glass windows in the building, Melody had resorted to sitting outside the chapel and surveying the streets alone in the cold. There had been nothing very interesting to look at- just a few schoolboys and merchants selling their wares- until he came along.

The old man was strangely odd, not the conforming, high-powered elders that Melody had had to interact with so closely in the palace. He wore a long, gray cloak and was holding a rope around a sickly-looking white goat. His beard was almost as gray and long as his garments. One of the first strange things Melody noticed about him was that the man had seemed to appear out of nowhere, and was now looking around the area near a citizen's house as if he were looking for someone.

But the main thing about him that attracted her was his necklace. A silver chain connected the also silver pendant to complete the piece of jewelry. It was an odd symbol- a triangle with a circle and line inside. In fact, it was the same symbol that Melody had just finished drawing in the snow.

Suddenly, the man's eyes had locked on her's as she stared at him. Embarrassed at scrutinizing a total stranger, the girl made to head back into the church with her parents when she felt a hand on her shoulder and a calm, yet rusty voice say, "Don't leave quite so soon, Melody."

Melody had whipped around in shock. Shock that this man, this oddball, had said her name. Had known her name. As far as she knew, the girl was fairly sure she had never even seen him in her life. However, although she was terribly frightened, her legs seemed to be frozen. She couldn't move. And somewhere deep down, the girl actually wanted to hear what this man had to say.

When realizing that he would get no reply from her, the old man had pulled her off into the corner of the chapel next to one of the stained-glass windows her parents had been admiring earlier. She watched as flecks of sunlight, peeking out from behind the gray clouds in the sky above, beaded down onto the glass creating a luminescent shine. After a minute or so of goggling the sight, Melody turned back to face the man.

He had looked back at her, a strange emotion of sadness and elation etched on his face. Quickly however, the emotion vanished from his face and a careless expression had overtaken his face. He opened his mouth and hunched over Melody, whispering urgently into her ear.

"I don't have much time," the man had said, looking anxiously around him. "They don't want me to tell you, but the road up ahead is not easy and I don't believe you can go at it alone." To Melody's amazement, slipped the necklace he had been wearing off around his neck and handed it over into her hand. Sensing her astonishment, the man smiled and stated, "Keep it close, Miss Albert. It's very important." And, when the young girl had looked up, the strange man was gone.

Still trying to decide if what had just happened was real, Melody had put the necklace carefully into the front pocket of her yellow dress. It was the only thing that convinced her that what she had just seen was not something made up by her imagination.

Her parents had come outside too afterwards, beckoning Melody to come and get in the carriage to go to yet another town, yet another museum, yet another church- yet another boring outing, while she had contemplated the mystery of the old man and his necklace- a necklace that was supposedly very important in the future.

Horrible screams from all around her shook Melody out of the memory. Standing up in fear, she glanced around where she stood. Down the road, horrible masked figures with black capes were slowly coming towards her. She could barely register the chaos of people and fire happening near her. Desperately, she tried to find her parents in the masses, elbowing and shoving people who came in her way. A flash of red and black and the scream of her name near the carriage she had just left gave her the glimpse of what she was hoping to see. Tears swimming in her eyes, she reached to grab the hand her mother held out for her as the buggy had started to head down the street, both the horse and the chauffer completely forgetting their young master in the ruckus.

Trying with all her might to run as fast as she could, Melody slowly found herself slipping further and further away from her mother's outstretched hand and her father's shouts for help to the passersby to rescue their daughter. The word death seemed to come from everybody's tongues around her. She hardly had any time to register the carriage coming up from behind her. But as she felt the buggy knock her off her feet, and the blood seeping down onto the white snow, the only thing she thought about was the pines stretching high into the sky above her, and the mystery of a necklace that would change the future.

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><p><strong>Some applause for my first crossover? *crickets* Oh well, it was worth trying.<strong>

**So, I was just strolling through this amazing website the other day, herping my derp, and I saw the category of Harry Potter/Little Mermaid crossovers. Since those things are like the two loves I have in the world, I was immediately interested and read all of the stories. Though I loved them all, I was a little disappointed that nobody had really written a fanfic with Melody in it. So, I took the liberty of creating that kind of story for my own!**

**Actually, this fic will include some characters from my other Little Mermaid story, Learning to Stand, but just a little bit later in the future. Everything that happens in that story will be compatible to what happens in this one.**

**I guess I should include some more info on the story. Well, it basically takes place in Harry's third year, and though it may not seem like it now, Melody will join in on the fanfic and play a pretty large role in it. And if anybody can guess the strange man that Melody met, and the symbol that she is so curious about, you get an internet cookie!**

**Anyway, thanks for reading and I hoped you enjoyed it! If you like what's written here, please check my other stories as well. Thank you again! **


	2. A Stranger from Somewhere

"Harry, please. You can't do that. You'll get horribly hurt," Hermione Granger said to her friend as they walked in the snowy woods near Hogsmeade. Her other companion, Ron Weasley, shook his head in agreement.

"Yeah, mate. You're absolutely mad if you want Black to find you," he stated.

But at that moment, Harry Potter did not care one bit if his skills weren't up to par with Black's. He didn't even care if he was a murdering lunatic. The first one ever to escape Azkaban at that. All he knew was that Sirius Black had betrayed his parents to Voldemort, and he was the reason they were dead. If the man hadn't turned them over, then maybe he would be able to go spend Christmas back home with them this year, instead of having to stay at Hogwarts, as usual...

Harry was in one of the stupors that had been fairly common after he had sneaked into Hogsmeade and heard the truth about Black. Now, here he was in the woods, having sneaked into the Hogsmeade area once again, ranting about hoping that Sirius would find him so he could avenge his parents' deaths. Of course, he didn't expect his friends to understand, but he had to tell somebody his feelings, or else the pent-up emotios would come out the wrong way. Take this summer for instance. After that incident with his aunt and the Knight Bus, Harry definitely could say for sure that he had a temper.

Deep down, he knew he was mad, like Ron had said. He couldn't take on Black and he knew it. He also knew he had to keep control of his temper, but at something of this magnitude, it seemed all but impossible. He also had school to worry about, and his friends, and Quidditch, and the ever-present threat of Voldemort. Really, all Harry wanted to do was to go back under his Invisibility Cloak and go to the town of Hogsmeade again, maybe get a lollipop from Honeydukes like the trio had done in the earlier hours of the day-

Until Harry heard a sound.

It sounded as if it was a great deal of the way off in the distance, but it was filled with agony all the same. Forgetting his own rage and sadness, Harry tried to make out exactly what he was hearing, but Hermione and Ron's jabbering was making it hard to concentrate.

"Guys, be quiet," Harry said, annoyed at his best mates.

Ron and Hermione looked at him like he had gone off the deep end. "What is it now, Harry?" Hermione asked.

He strained his ears even more, searching to identify the noise. He stepped forward through the snow, still hearing the sound and the crunching of snow of what sounded like feet. Harry looked back at his friends, expecting them to hear the same thing he did, but they looked clueless. Then, Ron muttered something about having to run an errand for Fred and George at Zonko's Joke Shop and tried to make a run for it. Harry grabbed him by the sleeve of his coat.

"Goodness, Harry! What's wrong with you? We're already breaking school rules by you coming here, and being so far in the woods! And you want to find Black, not to mention! The man who somehow escaped from Azkaban. And now, you're looking off into the trees at nothing-" Ron began.

"Shush, Ronald. Don't you hear that too?" Hermione questioned, leaning her ear more to the depths of the woods, finally hearing what Harry was hearing. Harry gestured his head at Hermione so hopefully Ron would understand. His friend shook his head, uncomprehending.

Though he wished he could make Ron understand, Harry's curiosity got the best of him as he ran further into the pines. The sobbing noise was sounding louder now, and he could hear Ron and Hermione's labored breathing behind him, trying to keep up with their friend.

Harry stopped as he reached the end of his long run at the end of a tiny stone overhang. Holding Ron and Hermione back behind him in case the maker of the noise was dangerous, he looked down at the snowy ground below the precipice and was shocked at what he saw.

A young girl, who couldn't be much more older than himself, stood crying on a rock. She was incredibly skinny, even more so than Harry after a summer at the Dursley's. Her cloak and dress, which must have at one time looked very royal and grand, were tattered and in shreds. The boy slowly turned back around from the scene to address his friends.

"You won't believe what I saw. It's a girl. She's just sitting there, crying. I think she's run away or something," he said to his friends.

Ron and Hermione looked very unsure of how to react. Finally, Hermione spoke. "Well, if it's really a girl down there, and not just one of your hallucinations, Harry, we have to talk to her and bring her to safety somehow. She'll get hurt if she stays here overnight," she said.

Harry was about to reply when Ron butted in. "But what if she's a Muggle? Where will we take her? It's not like we can just bring her into a wizarding community," he whispered.

Hermione looked ready to retort angrily but Harry did not want to hear another argument. He jumped into the conversation instead to diffuse the tension. "I think we still need to send someone down there, anyway," he said. "Like Hermione said, we can't just leave her in the woods."

"You should go, mate," Ron said, looking at Harry.

Harry shook his head, unsure and maybe a bit frightened about what the girl might do. "I think we should send Hermione."

"No, Harry! I can't go down there!"

"Yes, you can! It's not that hard to just slide down a snowy bank!" Ron snarkily replied. The bickering continued until Harry called a halt.

"All right, let's just vote! Who wants me to go?" No hands were raised, and Harry was secretly relieved.

"Okay, who wants Ron?" Hermione's hand shot up angrily.

"And Hermione?" Both Harry and Ron's hands were raised.

Hermione sighed, realizing that she was beaten. "Alright, I'll go. But if something happens to me, I'll tell Dumbledore to place all the blame on you two," she said.

"You're the girl, anyway, you don't matter," Ron said, promptly receiving a smack from Hermione's hand.

The boys watched carefully as Hermione slowly slid down the snowy banks near the girl. Amazingly, the young child did not seem to hear any noise amidst her tears. Silently and almost painstakingly, the girl edged closer to the unfamiliar child.

But Hermione was soon noticed as she stepped on a twig. The young stranger stood up immediately, looking around, obviously scared for her life. She picked up a small branch from the ground and held it up in the air threateningly, almost as if it were a wand, and Harry suddenly had doubts that she was just an ordinary Muggle.

"Who's there?" the girl shouted. "Come out! I'll fight you!" she yelled, obviously a hidden tremor in her voice.

Hermione saved this time to step out of the clearing. The girl dropped her "wand" and started to run away in the other direction before Hermione grabbed onto her cloak and, as gently as she could, dragged the girl to face her. Slowly, she took her over to the rock and sat her on it, still handling the cloak to make sure she wouldn't run away. The girl started to cry again.

"Shh, it's okay. I'm sorry if I startled you, but I won't hurt you. I'm Hermione," she said, holding out her hand. "What's your name?"

The girl looked up and stared at Hermione, as if deciding whether to trust her or not. "Why should I tell you?"

Hermione sighed. "I promise I won't do anything bad to you. I just want to help and take care of you. So, what's your name?"

The child spluttered out a string of words. "My name is Melody, but that's all I can remember! I just woke up on the ground in these woods, feeling as though I'd never be happy again! And I've been wandering for weeks trying to find someone to help me but I've just met horrible monsters and..." she started sobbing yet again and Hermione had to stroke her in a weirdly motherly way to get her to calm down again.

"Well, Melody, you'll be fine with us. We're here to help you. We'll just take you back into town and..."

The girl supposedly named Melody looked up questionably. "U-us?" she stuttered. "You mean, there are more?"

Hermione laughed as she had forgotten all about her friends up on the overhang. "Yes, my best mates, Harry and Ron. Come down guys!" she yelled, motioning for the boys to come down and meet Melody. Unsurely, Ron and Harry came out of their hiding spaces and slid down the snowy slope as their friend had done moments earlier, and came to face the strange girl that they had viewed from a distance.

"This is Ron," Hermione stated, as Ron held his hand out uncertainly for Melody to shake. Smiling at his nervousness, Melody carefully shook his hand.

"And this is Harry," she said, as Harry too held out his hand to be shaken.

But instead of instantly shaking it as she had done with Ron, Melody looked at Harry with a puzzled expression on her face. In a low voice, she whispered, "You have my eyes, you know."

Harry looked into her eyes closely for the first time and realized that she was right. The green eyes that he had so been noticed for in his life in the wizarding world, were reflected back at him in this girl. It was awkward, to say the least.

"Yeah, I guess I do," he wobbly stated back. They shook hands, and Harry, as much as he tried, couldn't ignore the little spark that seemed to flow between him and this Melody.

Hermione, feeling the tension between the two people, cleared her throat and tried to resume control over the situation. "Alright, well, Melody, if you'll follow us, we'll take you back up to the village at the edge of the woods. And we'll talk to the headmaster of our school, Dumbledore, to see if he can accommodate you there or help you find your way back home," she said.

Melody chuckled for no apparent reason as the trio looked at her, dumbstruck. Recovering from her fit of laughter, she glanced at the group's questioning looks. "Your headmaster's name is Dumbledore?" she said and shook her head. "What a funny name."

"Well, I think you'll find that we're a funny bunch of people," Harry said, smiling, looking at the girl as they started to head behind Hermione and Ron, who did not wait to understand the reason of the laughter from Melody. And the pair smiled, yet another spark flowing between the two for whatever reason that they did not fully understand.

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><p><strong>YAY! THE SECOND CHAPTER! The trio has now officially met Melody! You like?<strong>

**Thanks to everyone who has favorited this story! I really appreciate knowing that at least some people like this fanfic. More reviews and favorites will definitely not be minded!**

**Anyway, hope everyone enjoyed this meeting and is looking forwards to Melody going to Hogwarts and seeing the wizarding world for the first time! You all are the absolute best.**


	3. DISCONTINUED

I'm really sorry to say that I have decided to discontinue this story. It's been so many months since I updated, and honestly, I just have no drive to write in the Little Mermaid category now. Plus there are lots of other things I feel like I write that would be a better use of my time. Thank you for understanding, and again, I apologise.

**If you have any complaints, please PM me. Thanks.**


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